Sexing up “The Good Wife” has been a controversial decision. Photo: CBS

Every now and then, on radio or TV, we bump into a cheery social scientist or urban studies academician who tells us that America’s moral alarmists are all wet — things aren’t much different and no worse from what they were 30, 40, 50 years ago.

And, often, he or she has written a paper, a book or an op-ed piece to prove it.

It’s at this point, that I’d love the opportunity to ask this person a single question:

“Were there metal detectors and/or police stationed at the entrances to your junior high school or high school 30, 40, 50 years ago, when you were a kid?”

The honest answer would be, “No.”

Well, I’d continue, there are now, but only because they’re very much needed to better protect students from what didn’t go on 30, 40, 50 years ago.

To that end, when I was in high school, CBS’s Sunday night lineup, in order, was “Lassie,” “My Favorite Martian,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Perry Mason,” “Candid Camera” and “What’s My Line?”

Now, at 9 p.m., CBS presents the one-hour drama, “The Good Wife.” Two Sundays ago it included a scene that was, well, nearly as incredible to watch as it is impossible to fully describe.

The character Kalinda Sharma (played by Archie Panjabi) met her estranged husband, recently released from prison, at a coffee shop. The two sat at the counter, each eating a cone filled with ice cream.

After calling her “a bitch,” he asked, “Do you remember this?”

He then reached down under the counter. Kalinda appeared to be sexually aroused.

His hand resurfaced and then he dunked his fingers in the ice cream cone she was holding. We’ll leave that to you to figure what that was about.

No need to scold or sermonize at this point, I’ll allow the above scene on a Sunday night on CBS to speak for itself.

“Viewer Discretion Advised” is no longer a fair warning. Rather, it has become a defensive dodge for network bosses who make damned sure to abandon their own discretion as one of the primary terms of their employment.

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It’s tough to gauge. The raw dishonesty that now drives local TV newscasts seems equally sickening as it is pathetic.

Last Thursday’s WABC-Ch. 7 News — a newscast that has worked extraordinarily hard to be recognized as among the least trustworthy in town — included a tease near the top that told of a hurricane, Patty, “in the Atlantic.” So stay tuned!

A hurricane! In the Atlantic! Why, we live right alongside the Atlantic!

But, minutes later, when it was time for weatherman Lee Goldberg to give his forecast, Hurricane Patty was hardly worth a mention. Goldberg briefly noted that Patty was far out to sea, and would stay there.

He added that it was no longer even a hurricane, but had diminished to a 45 mph blow that was of no concern.

To think that cops arrest people for falsely pulling alarms. And that Ch. 7 News reports such stories.

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Reader Alan Hirschberg thinks that Linda McMahon, in TV ads for her campaign for US senator from Connecticut, is missing a great opportunity.

McMahon, he suggests, as the wife and business partner of pro wrestling king Vince McMahon, should be stressing all the jobs they’ve helped create, through the years.

“I mean, whenever a wrestler died from an overdose,” writes Hirschberg, “didn’t that create a job opening?”